Jewish composers

52 Examples of Jewish-American Sheet Music from the Early 20th Century. A collection of English-language sheet music, ca. 4-8 pp. each, in orig. color illus. wrrps., most published in New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, or Los Angeles, ca. 1900-1920. (47699)

“Under the Matzo Tree: A Ghetto Love Song,” “Yiddle on your Fiddle Play Some Rag Time,” and “At Abe Kabbible’s Kabaret,” aren’t the songs that made legends of Jewish-American composers and lyricists like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. Their celebrated contributions to the history of American popular music and modern styles of ragtime, jazz and blues for vaudeville, musical theater, radio, and eventually film have eclipsed their modest beginnings as song-pluggers and composers churning out campy sheet music titles like these for parlor room entertainments and novelty acts in New York City’s raffish Tin Pan Alley. [click to continue…]

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